Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Wednesday that the recent US military raids inside Pakistan's tribal areas violated its sovereignty and threatened the gains made in the anti-terror fight. "I'm afraid that a relatively recent element in this already difficult war threatens to undo what we have already achieved," he said in a speech at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School.
"I am referring to the US attacks in Pakistani territory," he said, adding: "The US troops are going into Pakistan in hot pursuit to threaten the elements that threaten Pakistan. This is certainly one way of looking at this matter. "However, the Pakistani public rightly sees some attacks as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty," the foreign minister told a large gathering of students and faculty members.
"It hurts us even more when the transgressor is our friend and ally, the US. If there are actions to be taken, those actions will be taken by Pakistan," he said. Qureshi said the US actions risked further alienating the population of the tribal areas and the wider populace. The Foreign Minister said: "The Pakistan public rightly sees such attacks as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty. We must not take any action that hardens the resolve of those already committed to violence."
In his speech, Qureshi gave background to the grave situation now prevailing along the Pak-Afghan border that basically stemmed from the 1979 Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, with the United States and Pakistan backing the resistance fighters, which ultimately drove out the Red Army. Washington's abandonment of the fighters eventually led to the emergence of the Taliban, who are now aggressively pursuing their ideology in the region.
"Pakistan is a victim of terrorism," he said. "I must, therefore, confess to a degree of bewilderment that Pakistan is seen more as a problem in some US circles than as a partner in this defining struggle of our times," he said. "We are at war in Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) against the extremists," the Foreign Minister said, adding: "We have lost more than 1,200 soldiers in this war. This includes one three-star, one two-star and a number of one star generals.
"Other than the US casualties in Iraq, this is the largest number of casualties sustained by any country fighting terrorism. Additionally, thousands of civilians have been killed in suicide bombings and targeted killings," he said. But, he said, military force alone could not win the war there or in Afghanistan where governments, including the United States, must win support of the people through other means.
"Force must be complemented by political, economic and social engagement," Qureshi said, and added: "Force alone is an insufficient objective to win the hearts and minds of the populace." The Foreign Minister called on the United States to provide more night-time fighting equipment, and urged Afghanistan to add hundreds more military posts along its side of the border to match those installed by Pakistan.
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